Herilalaina Rakoto-Raharimanana, Noëlle Monin and Anne Barrère,Retour sur l'article « Reconversion, bifurcation ou réorientation professionnelle ? The case of school teachers«, Research and training [On line], 100 | 2022, on-line since 01 January 2026. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/rechercheformation/9545 ;DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/14iah

Article summary:

Changes in the world of work since the 1990s have redefined careers, making professional reconversion a phenomenon that reveals tensions in self-fulfilment and the search for meaning in work. Analysed as an active transition, it often emerges from a real-life situation (suffering at work, ethical disagreements) that pushes individuals, particularly graduates, to leave jobs that are valued or associated with major responsibilities in favour of teaching. This choice, far from being a simple «withdrawal», embodies a desire for a balance between professional and private life, for a better fit between work and the meaning given to it, and for greater autonomy. Often driven by women, the transition to teaching is accompanied by a reflexive effort to re-qualify the teaching profession as an «honourable refuge». The article and the accompanying Rebond invite us to rethink the recognition of the teaching profession, the interactions between individual career paths and collective structures, and the shifting contours of self-fulfilment.

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